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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725615">Simulacrum</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwood/pseuds/wyvernwood'>wyvernwood</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Extremely Dubious Consent, Forced Relationship, Knifeplay, M/M, Missing Scene, Object Insertion, Oral Sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:55:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,846</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725615</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwood/pseuds/wyvernwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dhanneth is not the man he was, and neither is Jedao. Neither of them knows who they are, or even, fully, what they are. What is between them is not real, but they have to make it look real enough, especially considering who is watching.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kel Dhanneth/Jedao 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>What Fen Do (Instead of Going Outside)</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Simulacrum</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/gifts">flowersforgraves</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story contains a couple of extra scenes that fit into Revenant Gun somewhere. </p><p>Since your request for WDLF3 included a pointer to your Consent Issues request, I looked to the Machineries of Empire CI request you made for relationship and freeforms to include.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hexarch always contacted him remotely, never in person. Dhanneth thought the hexarch did not like to be in the same room with him. The feeling was mutual. He obeyed the hexarch in all things, and hated him in all ways. Obedience was the most important thing about being Kel. Hate could be channeled into fighting the enemy, so there was nothing wrong with feeling it, if it didn't show.</p><p>There was a lot of it to channel. The new orders added some of their own. "Congratulations," Kujen's voice said. </p><p>Dhanneth lay on his back and kept his face impassive. The monitors in the room would pick up whatever the hexarch wanted to see of him, and that meant he should look like the obedient Kel he was. "For what, sir?"</p><p>Kujen let that pass. Dhanneth didn't think the hexarch liked being addressed as a superior officer, no matter how clear he'd made it that he was to be obeyed like one. "Now that his mating instinct has awakened, I expect you'll have new duties."</p><p>Kel were not supposed to provide that sort of service, but since the general was not Kel, whatever uniform he wore -- was not even human, despite appearances -- there was no rule against it. Dhanneth focused on not giving away that the kiss had been a cover for secret communications, that they were plotting against the hexarch together. </p><p>Of course the ultimate traitor wanted to betray his master and creator. And that seemed to be the only way to save everyone, as well as the only path to revenge. So the very obedient Dhanneth was working hard to create a branching of his own maimed psyche.</p><p>Whatever he could not remember had happened immediately after he'd first seen the general. Jedao was a monster two different ways, historically and physically, but he was a monster with the mind of a boy, and Dhanneth had a great deal of practice guiding youthful Kel. The leadership of groups was -- sealed off, within him, with a price he was not willing to pay to regain it, but one on one, he could work around it in subtle ways.</p><p>He already had done so many times, showing the right next step to his charge, preparing briefings that guided him in the right directions. Responding to his overtures in the way that would best align him with Dhanneth's goal, which was the elimination of both him and Kujen from the universe. </p><p>It was very strange to care so much about someone who he also wished to annihilate. The resulting duality of emotion was full of traps and pitfalls that he mostly avoided by not thinking about it when Jedao was around, making up for the omission by thinking about him too much when they were apart. He thought about the kisses Jedao had forced on him and how his body had responded, how differently from how he would have before what Kujen had done to him. </p><p>"I sent him courtesans, but he did nothing with them that was useful to me. I like them the way they are, and I have you, so I don't need to reprogram them to Jedao's tastes." Kujen made a sound of mild distaste. "Fuck him. Make a pretext, get him alone, and don't take no for an answer. Obey him in all things, as always, of course. If that sounds contradictory, make sure it is not."</p><p>"Yes, sir," Dhanneth said. It bothered him that it was adjacent to hawkfucking. It wasn't that specific violation of Kel law; Jedao wasn't Kel. He had been Kel, or almost, he had been Shuos, really; now he was -- a moth creature. Go, fuck a monster, this was what the hexarch had given Dhanneth an order to do. The hexarch would die, not for this, but not <i>not</i> for this, either.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <hr/>
</div><p>It had not been especially difficult to seduce, or sexually assault, or seduce by sexually assaulting his superior. It was, Dhanneth found, feeling a strange combination of surprise and arousal and disgust at the discovery, exactly to Jedao's taste. And, it seemed, to his, though he could not remember wanting anything quite like this before. </p><p>This being Jedao, hands tied securely behind his back, biting back any sound louder than a sharply indrawn breath as Dhanneth kneeled in front of him and cut an intricate pattern into his inner thigh. Even when the knife slipped, slicing further than Dhanneth had intended, Jedao choked back the sound that would have given them away. </p><p>Not, as Dhanneth had pointed out, that it mattered. There was no one to report them to for what the Kel serving under them would see as a crime. While he followed Jedao's orders and hurt him, cut him, he talked silently to him in Kel drum code. Some of it was about Kujen. <i>The hexarch is watching,</i> he said, and then set the knife down. Sliding his hand along the underside of Jedao's cock, he said with subtle motions of his gripping hand around it, <i>and probably recording. In case.</i> </p><p>"You don't have to," Jedao said as Dhanneth bent his head to take Jedao into his mouth. </p><p>To see if he could speak drum code with his lips and tongue, Dhanneth attempted, <i>thank me for this. You are grateful, sir</i> and it must have been clear enough.</p><p>Because, "Thank you," Jedao said, back arching, barely restraining himself from thrusting deeper into Dhanneth's mouth. </p><p>Dhanneth dug his fingers into Jedao's thigh where he had been cutting a minute before. It should have been bloody, there should have been gaps to press his fingers into, and he wanted there to be, but the cuts had already healed so quickly. The flesh that had healed seemed tender, though, and pressing there made Jedao shudder and need to stifle more sounds he didn't want heard. It was satisfying in a way Dhanneth had not expected, having that effect.</p><p>He didn't want to be doing this. He was doing it on orders from the hexarch, whose orders could not be disobeyed, but who had never thought to order Dhanneth not to help Jedao kill him, instead had ordered and conditioned Dhanneth specifically to support and succor Jedao however he could and whatever he was asked. </p><p>No, Dhanneth didn't want to be giving head to a monster. But, since he had to, since he was an obedient Kel and he had been ordered to, and since it was the best way to protect the whole army -- he was no longer their leader but he was still their comrade, and Kel stood by Kel. Since he had to, as with any Kel doing something distasteful under orders, he enjoyed the satisfaction of doing it well. </p><p>Part of doing this particular job well was drawing it out. Being done too quickly would only disappoint his general. He slid his mouth up and off Jedao and stood, lifting the general and setting him on the desk. "Your inkstone," Jedao said, apparently worried he might break it. </p><p>Dhanneth put the stone away in his desk, along with the other items that were on top of it, leaving the blotter there. It could absorb whatever strange material Jedao might ejaculate, perhaps. Or maybe moths would fly out of him. Dhanneth thought he would not be surprised at anything the general's body did, except it did surprise him, mostly when it was most human.</p><p>"You want me to fuck you," Dhanneth said, half question, half statement. He did not know whether he expected an answer.</p><p>"I said whatever you want to do to me. I meant it," Jedao said. </p><p>He didn't mean it. No one could mean that. But Dhanneth thought that Jedao believed what he said. That Jedao was that scared, that guilty. He deserved it, Dhanneth thought. And, of course, Dhanneth could not do what he actually wanted, which was none of this. Except killing Kujen. </p><p>"Tell me you like the knife," Dhanneth suggested. He turned Jedao face down and made small cuts like radiant flares in the flesh of his ass. He put one hand between the general's tied hands to let Jedao speak in drum code to him. </p><p><i>You don't have to fuck me,</i> Jedao said. "Yes, cut me, use the knife," he said softly, as soon as he had stopped with drum code.</p><p>Dhanneth had lubricant in the vial he had fetched along with the rope. He poured it along the edges of the cuts, let it pool and the rest of it into the palm of his hand and then on the hilt of his knife. "This is what you want, then," he said and thrust the unyielding rough cylinder of it into Jedao without easing it at all. </p><p>A real person he might have damaged, doing that so abruptly. Even with all that lubricant, his knife didn't have a hilt designed to fuck someone with, especially in the ass. The pommel was wider than the hilt and double-lobed. There was resistance, but as strong as Dhanneth was, it wasn't much. </p><p>This monster was being damaged, Dhanneth judged, and hurting. The pain really turned him on, too. Dhanneth had no idea if the mimicry of human form and function went as far as Jedao having a prostate that could be pressed on to make him climax, but he didn't see any harm in proceeding as if it was there. "Say it," Dhanneth urged. "Thank me. For giving you what you want." </p><p>"Thank you, Dhanneth," Jedao said, and his body jerked, once, and then again. The climax had been achieved. He had managed to fulfill his orders and obligation and hadn't had to put any part of himself inside the creature's body, for which Dhanneth felt a surge of gratitude and something like affection -- that Kel satisfaction of a job well done, with minimal losses. </p><p>Very carefully, he untied the general's hands. He kissed the fingers when he was done, rubbed the marks on Jedao's wrists, and helped him stand. Dhanneth moved very close, then, and put one hand on the back of Jedao's neck, the other cupping his cheek. They kissed like lovers. Jedao's eyes were wide and dark, vulnerable. Before he could do or say anything, Dhanneth scooped him up and cradled Jedao against his chest. He felt fluids, whether sweat or semen or blood or something stranger he did not know, soaking into his shirt. No matter, that would be taken care of, the Kel thought as he took Jedao into the fresher so they could clean themselves.</p><p>They had, and hadn't, got away with something under the hexarch's eyes. That was the first time, not the last. It was the worst, but not, because getting used to it was disturbing. Dhanneth got a sufficiency of practice in not thinking about it. And then, finally, he didn't have to anymore, once his goal had been accomplished and the hexarch was no more. He no longer felt he needed to endure in order to end Jedao's existence. Dhanneth left it to Jedao to remember for them both.</p>
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